C, Post-Pentecost 8, Proper 13 - Luke 12:13-21 & Colossians 3:1-11 "Good, Guilt, & God"

Luke 12:13–21 (ESV) Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good for one’s existence.  Guilt though however, is an essential part of our created being through which we can learn about ourselves and our relationships with others.

Think about how you feel when guilt comes over you.  How do you react?  What do you do?  What do you think?  What do you try to hide?  Perhaps you’re defending a treasured idea or object! Reflecting on our guilt, despite the discomfort, helps us to identify what is broken within ourselves.  And once recognising what our guilt uncovers, it’s a powerful tool to rebuild what’s busted.

Jesus tells parables, to teach the truths of God the Father to those who have ears to hear.  He does this by exposing our emotions in the stories or parables he teaches.  In them he uncovers the emotional truths hidden within the hearer.  The parables can be painful because he gets to the core of our being where our human hidden reality bubbles and boils like lava deep within the earth.

Jesus tells parables to expose fault in our humanity.  So, in exploring the guilt and its cause, faults can be found, and our humanity can have the holy healing it needs. 

However, no one can fix their own guilt.  Trying only makes the fault line worse, because the internal tectonic plates of our emotions grind against each other only increasing guilt all the more.  Yes, one may be able to fool others with a calm external persona.  But in reality, we only fool ourselves, as the pressure builds before the emotions erupt and one emits the sulphuric state of their true being.

Instead, Jesus tells the parables, we hear his Word, so the Holy Spirit can expose guilt and guide us from it to the goodness of God.  As we’re reminded by the Psalmist in Psalm 107, to “give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:1,9 ESV)

On the other hand, what we think is good, seems good, until good gives way to guilt.  In the parable of the rich fool, Jesus touches your heart to reveal guilt, so the Holy Spirit can teach you about your guilt, and the products of fear and anxiety that come from it.

That’s why just prior to this parable Jesus teaches and warns us about hindering the Holy Spirit saying, “…everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:10–12 ESV)

In fact, it’s here Jesus gives us the answer in the Holy Spirit, even before any questions can be thought of, or asked.  Any question only comes from our guilt being provoked by hearing this parable of the rich fool. 

This is the question: What is the good treasure that makes me rich in and towards God?  The Answer: It’s allowing the Holy Spirit to make me holy, through the workings of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ. Alternatively, one could ask: What are the treasures I lay up for myself that diminish richness towards God? The answer: Anything that leads me to put God in second place, cheapen the pricelessness of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and hinders the Holy Spirit from delivering us to Jesus’ forgiveness.

Therefore, Jesus begins the parable by warning the hearer to, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15 ESV)

The rich man covets his goods, and he believes this to be good.  His land is full of life given by God, and it produces plentifully.  But he doesn’t treasure the coming of God’s kingdom nor God for giving him good things.  Instead, idolatry takes a hold of him as he builds his kingdom of pleasures by tearing down and building bigger barns to house his grain and goods. 

The idol of pleasure is his treasure.  This seductive shortsighted “good” is ingrained in him.  Eating, drinking and being merry, appears to be a good thing for many years to come.  But the idol he has built and worked so hard to protect as a result of the productive land will be left to someone else.   He built his barn but didn’t fear or trust that God had built him.  Therefore, his kingdom of coveting collapsed when God demanded back the very life God had given him.

What goods are ingrained in your pursuit of pleasure?  What blasphemous barn are you building to cover your coveting?

The call to not covet is the last of the commandments, but coveting begins down deep in the seat of the emotions and boils up through a person, leading us to fail in some, or all, of the other commandments. 

When one covets, one desires what one thinks is good.  Coveting makes one feel good!  When we get what we covet, chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin are released in the brain giving a hit of immediate pleasure that quickly fades.  No one ever covets something that will make them feel bad.  Feeling bad comes after the apple is eaten; after our knowledge of good proves not to be good in the way we’ve imagined and idolised.  After this comes guilt and its various reactions.

Jesus doesn’t tell us about the reactions of the rich fool after God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Luke 12:20 ESV) The reaction is never heard from the rich fool, but instead the heart of the hearer is provoked by Jesus’ parable because of the goods coveted and treasured instead of God.

In Colossians 3 Paul calls all who are raised with Christ and wish to appear with him in glory to, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And to, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  (Colossians 3:5 ESV) This earthliness is that which is ground into your being.  It’s the dirt of Adam ingrained and deeply rooted in you.  This is the dirt of sin deep within one's mortality from where idols are cast from molten emotions deep within the earthliness of one’s humanity.

The human goodness ingrained in us does not like having its guilt revealed.  But those in Christ, we whose earthliness is revealed by the dirt of our deeds, know although it’s painful having our guilt revealed now, it’s a blessing from God.  It gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to move us in the goodness of God who has sent the Holy Spirit, to give you faith.  Firstly, belief you are human. That is, earthly vessels or sinners who will perish.  But also, it’s belief that the death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ, saves from eternal death.

God the Holy Spirit comes from God the Father and God the Son to bring us to the Father through the Son.  The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus with life-giving faith.  Faith is a good gift from God through the Holy Spirit.  When the guilt of our ingrained greed is shown within, the Spirit wills you to run in repentance to Jesus Christ knowing that these trials test, “the genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”  (1 Peter 1:7 ESV)

Through repentance, the Holy Spirit puts to death guilt within, and covers forgiven sinners with the blood of Jesus.  We allow the Spirit to put to death what is earthly within because, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.” (Colossians 3:6 ESV)

Existing with unrepentant guilt is not good, but learning from one’s guilt, by the power of the Holy Spirit, reveals the eternal goodness of God in his Son, Jesus Christ.

When you allow the Spirit to teach you to treasure this, you are reassured, “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4 ESV)  Because, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:18–19 ESV)   Amen.

A, Post-Pentecost 10 Proper 13 - Genesis 32:22-31 "Struggle"

Genesis 32:28,29c–31 (ESV)  Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”  And there he blessed him.  So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”  The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Today’s sermon is for everyone who’s ever had conflict with anyone else.  Who feel they have been unfairly treated.  Who’ve got the rough end of the deal.  Who believe they’re not the “be all and end all” of humanity, but believe they deserve better treatment than what they’ve received.  You might be this person who sighs in exasperation, “if it’s not one thing it’s another!”

One thing after another keeps occurring.  You might feel your limping along through life, thinking things could be better!  If you are I invite you to hear and ponder the story of Jacob as your story.

Over the last three Sundays, we’ve heard about Jacob in the readings.

First, we heard about his birth, holding onto his brother’s heel.  A sneaky individual who steals Esau’s birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. (See Genesis 25: 19-34)

Second, he has a dream, and in it sees a ladder coming down from heaven.  Angels were ascending and descending the ladder and from the top God spoke to Jacob and promised to give him land and offspring. (See Genesis 28:10-19a)

Third, in last week’s reading, Jacob arrives and works for his uncle, Laban, his mother Rebekah’s brother.  The deceiver is deceived by his kin.  Jacob thinks he is working for seven years to receive Rachel as his wife but is given Leah.  After a week he is given Rachel for another seven years’ work.

The reading today has Jacob journeying back to Canaan.  He is fleeing Laban but returning to Esau, whom he fled after stealing his birthright and blessing. 

Here is a man surrounded by trouble.  In front of him is uncertainty.  God has called him to return to his people.  The only problem is his brother might try to kill him for stealing his birthright.

Behind him is his father-in-law, Laban.  Disgruntled by Laban’s changing terms of employment, Jacob schemes Laban out of his best livestock.  In this deceit, amongst others, the relationship falls ill between Jacob and Laban.  Jacob and his cohort attempt to flee but Laban catches him.  A covenant of peace is made between Laban and Jacob, and they depart.

Jacob was being blessed as God had sworn to him at Bethel.  He came with nothing except for God’s promise and now he was leaving Laban having been given, wives, offspring, and livestock.  But to where would he go and settle?

As he journeyed towards home, he heard Esau was approaching with four hundred men.  Jacob knows what he has done to Esau, he expects the worst, to be attacked, have his family and livestock killed.  He divides his people and livestock. 

Acknowledging his fear, and the trouble he was in, Jacob prays, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’  I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.  Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.  But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”  (Genesis 32:9–12 ESV)

Jacob then decides to present five gifts to Esau in the hope of appeasing his brother.  These were separate gifts of two hundred and twenty goats, two hundred and twenty sheep, thirty camels and their calves, fifty head of cattle, and thirty donkeys.

Two things are made explicit to us with this large five-fold gift.  The first is Jacob was now a wealthy man having been blessed by God.  The second thing is he feared his brother having wronged him.  Jacob’s spirit was terribly unsettled by the predicament in which he had gotten himself.

After sending these gifts, he sends his wives, his two concubines who served them, and their children, over the river.

This is no act of chivalry.  Deceitful Jacob places a buffer between himself and his enemy.  He prepares to sacrifice his least favoured possessions and people first.  One by one, lot by lot, leaving himself last behind those he has sent out to be his expendable pawns.

It’s here, by himself, this extraordinary event occurs.  Jacob struggles with a man whom he realises is God.  The irony here in Jacob’s act to protect himself, by cowardly sending all out in front of him he leaves himself exposed.  The one who grabbed his brother’s heel in birth, and in life, who struggled with his kin, now struggles with God. 

The river he sent his family over is called the Jabbok, it means to pour out or empty.  At this river he empties himself of his family.  But in his struggle with God, it is Jacob who is emptied, only to have God’s blessing poured out upon him.

In this event, the people of God born to Jacob, get their name as Israelites, after God blesses him and renames him Israel.  The name is a combination of two Hebrew names, Sarah and El or Elohim.  This is a combination of his grandmother’s and the Almighty’s names.  In Hebrew, Sarah or Sar is a person who exercises dominion or prevails with power. 

So, Jacob gets the name of Israel because he prevails with the Almighty.  This is not lost on him as he calls the place Peniel, which translates as “the face of God”, for he says, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” (Genesis 32:30b ESV)

It has all finally caught up with the heel grabber.  Despite grabbing God in this wrestle, God has grabbed him!  In fact, all with whom Jacob has wrestled has been a struggle with God.  His struggle with his uncle Laban, his father-in-law, has been a struggle with God.  But at the place of struggle God had blessed him.

Now having struggled with God, whom he first thought was a man, Jacob receives a blessing, it’s here the name Israel takes on a different tone.  Not only does Jacob struggle against God, from now on Jacob will also struggle, together with God, as a blessing.  He is fulfilling God’s initial promise to his grandfather Abraham.

There are indicators after this that demonstrate this combination of struggle and blessing. 

Practically, Jacob cannot now flee from the incoming threat of his brother Esau.  You can’t run with a dodgy hip.  At best one can hobble along.  Having sent his livestock and family before him as a buffer, now he leads with a limp and meets Esau.

We hear in Genesis thirty-three, “And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants.  And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.  He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.  But Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.”  (Genesis 33:1–4 ESV)

Now, he put himself before his least favoured all the way back to Rachel and Joseph, his favourites.  Yes, he still has an order that discriminates!  But now, he makes himself the least, having struggle with God and also blessed by God.   Now, Israel struggles together with God, so through Israel, God can struggle with humanity to bless them too.

The second indicator or marker is how Jacob now regards Esau, his brother, whom he formerly saw as his enemy.  Jacob now struggles with Esau in a new way, to be a blessing to him with the five sizable gifts of livestock.

Jacob says to Esau, who seeks to refuse his gifts, “ ‘No, please, if I have found favour in your sight, then accept my present from my hand.  For I have seen your face, which is like seeing the face of God, and you have accepted me.  Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.’ Thus he urged him, and he took it.’ ” (Genesis 33:10–11 ESV)

God touched his hip, not to keep a hold of the heel grabber, but to lift him up by the heel to bless all people.  He whom he saw as an enemy, in him he now saw the face of God.  What had changed?  Jacob no longer saw himself as God, but as one with whom God had mercy, and from whom  he had received blessing.

Like Jacob we have conflicts with other people.  Do you see the face of God in those you regard as enemies, or even those whom you treat with suspicion?  Jacob lived as though he had a constant chip on his shoulder.  He was a heel of a man who struggled with all through his self-righteousness, yet those with whom he struggled God gave blessing.

Jesus Christ is the Godsend of Jacob to all people.  Jesus is the blessing of Israel for humanity.  He took up the struggle of Jacob and saw the face of God in his enemies.  He saw the face of God in you when he took your struggles with God and with others on himself to the cross.  

Let the Holy Spirit wrestle your human spirit so you can see God in the face of those with whom you struggle.  Let the Holy Spirit lead you to forgive, as God has forgiven you.  Struggle, together with God, to bless as you have been blessed!  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 2 Proper 7 - Luke 8:38-39 "Legions of God's Love"

Luke 8:38–39 (ESV) The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying,  “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

The power of God’s word causes belief or unbelief.  It does not cause one to be half hearted or apathetic.  This is because God’s word has power over the desires of the flesh.

When Jesus sailed across Lake Galilee, he calmed the storm causing fear amongst the disciples.  They were learning what kind of master Jesus was, as they saw and heard him rebuke the wind and the waves.  And they saw the immediate response of the wind and waves become calm, just like a child who’s shushed by its parent.  The word of God is such, even the wind and the waves believe in the power of God’s word.

They arrive at the Gerasenes, a place on the eastern side of Lake Galilee.  This is a place of Gentiles, also known as the Decapolis, or the ten cities.  Having arrived, Jesus walks into another storm.  However, this storm was a wild and woolly man tormented by demons.  Not only was he a Gentile, but controlled by the demons, he was the most unclean and depraved of Gentiles.

But we hear something most remarkable as Jesus approaches this naked, vile man, a man who lives as though he was dead amongst the tombs.

We hear, “When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.’” (Luke 8:28 ESV)

How is it that the most unclean knows the Most High God?  Out on the lake the disciples didn’t know, and Jesus said to them, “‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marvelled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:25 ESV)

Jesus does not torment the demons but allows them to leave the man and enter pigs.  Mark’s gospel records some two thousand swine.  But tormented by the demons these unclean animals race down the hill and are stilled by a drowning death in the sea, Jesus had just commanded and calmed.

Remarkably the man, Legion, in whom many demons had controlled and tormented, who could not be contained by chains and shackles.  But broke free and roamed in deserted places.  Where it was thought evil lived and God was not present, amongst the uncleanness of death and decay of graves.  The word of God controls him, and the convulsing demons beg Jesus not to torment them.

Demons recognise Jesus immediately, but the disciples don’t, such is the reality of humanity who have been blinded by the knowledge of what they perceive to be good and evil, whereas the demons know there is only one source of Good and that is God, their All-Mighty enemy.

But the All-Mighty enemy does not torment them, such is the God of love.  He grants them their wish and they leave the man.  The legion of demons enters the pigs, unclean animals, where God surely would not be present to further torment them.  But the unclean pigs would rather die than to have this evil wallow within and they rush into Lake Galilee and die.

On the bank of the lake, the demon possessed man is healed, he sits calmly with Jesus.  He wants to be a disciple of Jesus; he wants to come with him.  Just as the demons begged to go into uncleanness, the man free of demons, begs to remain in the restoration of his rescuer.

It might appear that Jesus rejects his request, that he sends him away and does not allow him to come with Jesus.  But quite the opposite occurs!  He is sent in the same way as the disciples are later sent, as Apostles, as a sent one!  He is sent as one set apart and freed to confess how God had set him free, to no longer be a slave of death, binding himself no longer to the flesh, and the demons that control the flesh, but to the powerful word of God, in the flesh of Jesus Christ, who gave permission for the demons to enter pigs, and Legion to take Goodnews to the Gentiles.

Who do you associate with in this narrative?  The disciples, Legion, the pigs or perhaps the people who ask Jesus to leave?  What is your fear?  Are you afraid of getting to know Jesus as the Most High God, who exposes the depraved piggishness of your most low desires and deeds? What does Jesus wish for you to take away from his word here today?

Paul’s letter to the Galatians helps open up what is happening here in Jesus’ interaction with Legion as he does with us all who daily drown the piggish demons of our sinful selves in the waters of baptism.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.  So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.   (Galatians 3:23–29 ESV)

Like Legion, we have been made one with Jesus Christ.  Legion’s oneness, however, was not made complete here in this narrative as Jesus sends him off to proclaim what God had done for him.  Rather, Legion, along with all whom Jesus healed in his ministry, and all who today are healed by the work of the Holy Spirit, are healed by the death of Jesus on the cross.

This is the completion of Legion!  This is the completion of you and me!  This is the completion of creation which waits on God for the restoration as did the wind and the waves who heard the word and were stilled, and the pigs who could not carry the sin and torment of even one man, but rather chose the stillness of death in the sea.

We no longer are captives of sin or death.  We are captivated by faith!  You are Abraham’s offspring.  What does that mean?

We wait for Jesus.  We are Sons of God.  Male or female, slave or free, Jew, or Gentile or Greek.  When God sees you, he sees Abraham’s offspring.  He sees Jesus.

When you see Jesus, what do you see?  When Jesus the Most High God reveals himself to you, what do you see?  Do you see the swine within and send them to their death in the waters of Baptism?  Do you let the Holy Spirit deliver death to the demons of the Old Adam or Eve within?  Or are you resisting the Holy Spirit and feeding his pearls to the pigs?  Are you wasting the wealth of God, the word of God, and feeding on the desires and deeds that lead to death?  Do you fear God, or do you fear family, friends, what others think, fortunes, lack of fortunes, more?

Let the Holy Spirit return you to Jesus!  If Jesus can control the wind and the waves, if he can deliver the man from a legion of demons, he can deliver you from the legion of temptations you face every day.  Like the complete number of pigs, one herd of pigs, let us rush as one in Christ, to the stilled waters of baptism, time and time again, so we might have the demons of sin drowned within.

Let us be sent out like Legion, as a legion of Christ’s love, as reflections of forgiveness, confessing to others what God has forgiven in us.  Fear God, not humanity!

Let us have the power of humility to boldly proclaim how Jesus has found us debased and rebased us as Sons of God, taking our depraved and piggish deeds and desires on himself, and replacing them with the Holy Spirit.  So, we have faith through this life, hope in death, and love for our neighbour so we might serve them with Jesus’ gifts of confession and forgiveness.

Sons of God, be encouraged by the voice of the Almighty Son of God in Psalm 66, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.  I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.  If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.  But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.  Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” (Psalm 66:16–20 ESV)

Because God has not rejected Jesus’ prayer or removed his steadfast love from him, believe he does not reject your prayer or remove his steadfast love from you, who remain in him!  Amen.